


Going to War

by rebel_wren



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 23:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21126713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_wren/pseuds/rebel_wren
Summary: When the news is broken about the destruction of Hosnian Prime, Hera and Jacen are both emotional.





	Going to War

Hera held her kalikori in her lap, tracing over the pieces on it. Her mother’s. Her brother’s. Kanan’s. Her father’s. It was a habit she’d gotten into as she got older, the skin on the hands she was using now wrinkled and worn with age. It made her feel closer to the people she’d lost.

And looking at the images in front of her, she needed to.

Hosnian Prime- the New Republic- was gone. How many old friends and acquaintances did that mean she’d lost? She had tried and given up trying to count four times now.

She’d retired from the New Republic Navy when Jacen was still very young, not long after the Military Disarmament act was passed, so she wasn’t as in-the-know about everything as she used to have been. As far as she knew before this, the First Order was a fringe terrorist group that didn’t pose a real threat.

She wanted to know who gave those reports.

“Mom,” Jacen said quietly. He met her eyes, and Hera saw her own fierce determination in his. “I have to fight this.”

“I know.”

And she did know. Jacen may have looked strikingly like his father, especially as he was now about the age that Kanan was, but he was her son.

It was because she knew that she began to cry.

“Mom,” Jacen said, quickly hugging her. Hera returned the hug tightly, pressing her lips together tightly and clinging onto Jacen like it might be the last time.

He held her close- he’d gotten taller than her. “I’ll be okay.”

“No one comes out of war okay, Jacen.”

“You did.”

“I wish that was true,” Hera said, letting out a shaky sigh.

They held onto the hug for longer, but when they finally let go, Hera cupped Jacen’s cheek with one of her hands. He had the same determination she did when she left home- to fight the injustice, to make things right, to save the galaxy.

But he shouldn’t have had to. Why did she fight? Why did any of her family fight? Hera spent so many years of her life, for what?

What did Kanan die for?

Jacen seemed to feel her pain- he always did. 

“I have to do this.”

“I know, Jacen,” she said. “Trust me, I know. I just… I fought so that you- your generation- didn’t have to. And now the New Republic, everything we built… it’s gone.”

_ It was all for nothing. _

She didn’t say it aloud, but she knew Jacen could hear it. He was funny that way, and similar to his father too.

“I got to grow up with peace,” Jacen said. “All my friends all did too. We got to go to school, and live… normally. I learned to fly with you by racing, not fighting. And- and I never had to worry as a kid that my mom wouldn’t come home.”

Hera smiled at him, and pulled him in to press a soft kiss to the side of his cheek. 

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too.”

If her son was going to war, then Hera was too.


End file.
